What's your favorite speaker finish?

"I wonder how much of a speaker's price goes towards the finish?" Quite a bit actually, or certainly can be. I think Vandersteen addresses that on his site somewhere (or did years ago) and why he likes the "sock" look so he can put money into the sound of the unit. Thiel's CS.5 were an additional $400 (maybe $350, still alot) for the top four finishes on a base price $1,450 pr of speakers with the standard 4 finishes.

Personnally, the quality of unit; design, drivers, etc.; is first for me--the finish is kind of secondary (I don't want good looking but crappy sounding speakers--they're not hard to find). It also depends on the design. I would never want a pair of original Nautilus in Mappa Burl or any wood.

Here's some Beauties posted yesterday:
http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/discuss.cgi?read=217210

Merlin's red lacquer (ruby heart red?), and I generally like rosewood and stained cherry.

Fingered Bubinga.

Quad has a new line of dynamic speakers with high grade piano finish standard, starting at only about $700. So it can be done. They are made in China (explains a lot) but they are getting nothing but glowing reviews so they might be good. The Totem 1s I had were really attractive in mahogany and the fine cherry finish I have seen on Vienna speakers is very nice. I love fancy grain wood but prefer finer grain wood finish on speakers.

The Tiger's eye finish on the B&W Signature 800 is my favorite to look at. Second is the Santos Rosewood finish on my Vienna Acoustic Beethoven's.